Chapter Two: Cliché

I blink up at the sharp, inky sky. It's wet. And freezing. Mud clings to my skin and hair, dirty water lightly tugging at me. I scramble to a standing, the sharp red line of the credit card from where it dug into my hand throbbing. I tuck the card away, quietly relieved that I didn't lose it. I let out a small whimper from the sudden freezing temperature.

Shivers run up and down my spine, shuddering through my limbs. I hug my arms around myself, trembling, my brows creased in annoyance. I am going to strangle Maggie. I glance around. It's intensely dark, so dark I can barely even see beyond a few inches around me.

"Are you kidding me?!" I shout into nothing. I sigh, knowing shouting will do nothing. I slowly reach my arms out, unable to find anything. I slowly lean forward, and my hands brush against something moist and only half-solid. Mud. Great... I fell into a small ravine-like thing.

I inhale slowly. I dug my fingers into the mud wall, attempting to climb up. But the mud just slips and falls away. And then I stupidly decide to just try it and I jump up at the wall, my fingers digging in and the toes of my heels scrabbling.

I fall back with a short scream into the small, dirty river, this time bringing mud down with me. I groan in pain and stand again, continuing my shuddering.

"You alright?" a smooth voice asks. I let out a loud scream, flailing out at where the voice was,

"Go away, go away, go away!" I yelp, one of my hands finding flesh wherein I just uselessly whack at them. They barely seem to notice, and for good reason... I'm not exactly putting up a great fight.

"Are you alright?" they repeat, clearly a bit annoyed at my yelping. I pause, slowly reaching out my hand. I end up poking a chest.

"Show me to the party house place!" I shout, grabbing tightly onto his shoulder. He plucks my hand off his shoulder by my wrist, pulling me along. As I can't see, I'm therefore completely helpless... So I end up letting him drag me. He, however, doesn't seem to be affected whatsoever by the forest wherein I am stumbling and nearly getting impaled on branches with thorns taking the opportunity to dig into my skin.

Finally, the trees and shrubs fall away, replaced by smooth concrete and circles of light from lamps. I sigh in relief. And then the guy turns to look at me. I stare, wide-eyed for a moment.

He's wearing a velvet victorian cape and other soft-seeming, expensive clothing. His hair is nicely styled and every inch of him seems to be absolutely perfect. I gulp nervously.

"You're bleeding," is his calm comment, I nod with a small sigh. I'm going to have to go to school with bandaids everywhere... his eyes are sharpened red, and when he opens his mouth to say something else I notice the sharp incisors that seem perfectly fused to his teeth. Clearly a vampire costume. "Where are you going, being alone here could be bad," he says in his calm, sharp voice. I hesitate for a moment.

"Just back to the house. It should only be around five minutes away," I mumble, though I want nothing but to go home. He stares at me for a moment, as if confused before he slowly nods, looking past me as if thinking about his next words before he sighs, as if conceding.

Alright. Come on," he says, turning and starting off down the road. I follow after him, sticking to the circles of soft light while he avoids them. The walk takes forever, my heels clicking on the concrete steadily, and I mentally curse Maggie and her sense of fashion. I'm cold, and muddy, and sore and I am going to murder Maggie and I'm going to go home and never come out again.

A car passes, and I mentally wish it were me in the warmth. Then the brakes screech, and he whips around, eyes narrowing at the car. He reaches back, grabbing my forearm tightly.

"Run," he hisses under his breath as the car starts to back up. I glance between him and the car, terrified and uncertain. He releases my arm, as if just realizing he'd been holding onto me. "Now," his voice is low and angry. His hand presses against the top of my back, shoving me back toward the woods. I immediately stumble into a thicket of thorns. Of course.

I struggle out, hurrying through the unlit woods. And it's then that I realize I have no idea where I'm going, and just left my only guide... I just messed up, didn't I?

And it only takes a few minutes for me to stop, and look around, still almost completely unable to see, when the low growl of a wolf sends fear spiking through my veins.

I slowly turn, staring in fright at the flashing teeth of a wolf with a shaggy brown speckled with red and blonde coat. I slowly put my hands out.

"Nice wolf," I say softly, slowly backing up. It's lips curl into a snarl rumbles through it as it advances slowly. I gulp. "Um, I'm friendly, so just... don't eat me," I say and it lurches a step forward, teeth flashing as they click sharply together. I choke back a shriek. And then a second growl steals my attention, revealing a light grey wolf, similarly irked by me. I slowly gulp. "Uhm... can I please take off my heels...?" I ask nervously, feeling petrified in terror.

It's lips curl as if enraged by my meek request. I slowly start taking a step back as they stalk forward. I move slowly, hoping that they'll stop moving. They don't, though most of the movement is keeping me more or less trapped between them. I try to keep my eyes on them while moving cautiously backward. But with the trees and brush and shrubs, moving in any direction is impossibly hard for me while they easily slip in and out of view, using the foliage to their advantage.